US Foreign Relations (fall 2023)
This course explores American foreign relations from the Progressive Era to the present day. The course will be structured as a combination of lectures (on-line, asynchronous, via snippets) and synchronous small-group meetings.
Requirements:
- Final exam (30%)
- NSC Group Participation (30%)
- Quizzes [from lecture snippets] (20%)
- Participation (20%)
Contact Info:
Office: Zoom, M11.30-1; T12.15-2, F11-12: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82246646081
email: kcjohnson9@gmail.com; text: 207-329-8456
All journal articles will be emailed, and each class also will feature additional reading from primary sources.
Schedule:
Week 1:
August 28 (synchronous). Introduction
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 8-28. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 8-31.
Week 2 (one class session–asynchronous only–b/c college calendar only one class scheduled for M/W classes this week).
asynchronous: Progressivism
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 9-3. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 9-7.
Reading
- Nancy Mitchell, “The Height of the German Challenge: The Venezuela Blockade, 1902–3,” Diplomatic History 20 (1996), pp. 185-210.
- Mary Barton, “The Global War on Anarchism: The United States and International Anarchist Terrorism, 1898–1904,” Diplomatic History 39 (2015), pp. 303-330.
Week 3: 1910s
asynchronous: World War I & the League of Nations
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 9-10. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 9-14
synchronous session: reading discussion
- Ross A. Kennedy, “Woodrow Wilson, World War I, and American National Security,” Diplomatic History 25 (2001), pp. 1-32.
- Gerwarth and Manela, “The Great War as a Global War: Imperial Conflict and the Reconfiguration of World Order, 1911–1923,” Diplomatic History 38 (2014), pp. 788-800.
- Emily Rosenberg, “World War I, Wilsonianism, and Challenges to U.S. Empire,” Diplomatic History 38 (2014), pp. 852-863.
- League-related documents & maps
Week 4: Interwar Era
asynchronous: Interwar Diplomacy
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 9-17. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 9-21
synchronous session: reading discussion
- William Walker III, “Crucible for Peace: Herbert Hoover, Modernization, and Economic Growth in Latin America,” Diplomatic History 30 (2006), pp. 83-117.
- Joseph Fronczak, “Local People’s Global Politics: A Transnational History of the Hands Off Ethiopia Movement of 1935,” Diplomatic History 39 (2015), pp. 247-274.
- documents
Week 5: 1936-1941
asynchronous: Path to U.S. entry into World War II
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 9-24. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 9-28
synchronous: reading discussion
- Eric Paul Roorda, “Genocide Next Door: The Good Neighbor Policy, the Trujillo Regime, and the Haitian Massacres of 1937,” Diplomatic History 20, pp. 301-320.
- Douglas M. Charles, “Informing FDR: FBI Political Surveillance and the Isolationist-Interventionist Foreign Policy Debate, 1939–1945 Diplomatic History 24 (2000), pp. 211-232.
- documents
Week 6: 1941-1950
asynchronous: World War II & Aftermath
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 10-1. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 10-5
synchronous: reading discussion
- Sarah Ellen Graham, “American Propaganda, the Anglo-American Alliance, and the ‘Delicate Question’ of Indian Self-Determination,” Diplomatic History 33 (2009), pp. 223-259.
- Marc Trachtenberg, “The United States and Eastern Europe in 1945: A Reassessment,” Journal of Cold War Studies 10, pp. 94-132.
- documents
Week 7: 1950-1960
asynchronous: The Militarization of the Cold War
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 10-8. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 10-12
synchronous: reading discussion
- Michelle Getchell, “Revisiting the 1954 Coup in Guatemala,” Journal of Cold War Studies 17 (2015), pp. 73-101.
- Robert Frazier, “Kennan, ‘Universalism,’ and the Truman Doctrine,” Journal of Cold War Studies, Volume 11, pp. 3-34.
- documents
Week 8: 1961-1964
asynchronous: The High Cold War
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 10-15. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 10-19
synchronous: reading discussion
- David Coleman, “The Missiles of November, December, January, February . . . : The Problem of Acceptable Risk in the Cuban Missile Crisis Settlement,” Journal of Cold War Studies 9.3 (2007), pp. 5-48.
- Thomas Allcock, “Becoming “Mr. Latin America”: Thomas C. Mann Reconsidered,” Diplomatic History 38 (2014), pp. 1017-34.
- documents
Week 9: 1964-1968
asynchronous: LBJ and Vietnam
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 10-22. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 10-26
synchronous: reading discussion
- Pierre Aselin, ““We Don’t Want a Munich”: Hanoi’s Diplomatic Strategy, 1965–1968,” Diplomatic History 36 (2012), pp. 547-81.
- documents
Week 10: 1969-1980
asynchronoys: Nixon, Human Rights
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 10-29. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 11-2
synchronous: reading discussion
- Evelyn Goh, “Nixon, Kissinger, and the ‘Soviet Card’ in the U.S. Opening to China, 1971–1974,” Diplomatic History (2005).
- Tanya Harmer, “Fractious Allies: Chile, the United States, and the Cold War, 1973–76,” Diplomatic History 37 (2013), pp. 109-143.
- Pat Holt (Foreign Relations Committee staffer) oral history
- documents
Week 11: 1980s
asynchronous: Crisis and Cold War End
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 11-5. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 11-9
- Evan McCormack, “Freedom Tide,” Journal of Cold War Studies 16 (2014), pp. 60-109.
- Mark Kramer, “The Collapse of East European Communism and the Repercussions within the Soviet Union (Part 1),” Journal of Cold War Studies, 5.4 (2003), pp. 178-256.
- documents
Week 12: 1990s
asynchronous: Bush I & Clinton
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 11-12. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 11-16
synchronous: reading discussion
- Batholemew Sparrow, “Realism’s Practitioner: Brent Scowcroft and the Making of the New World Order, 1989–1993,” Diplomatic History 34 (2010), pp. 141-175.
- Mary Elias Sarotte, “Not One Inch Eastward? Bush, Baker, Kohl, Genscher, Gorbachev, and the Origin of Russian Resentment toward NATO Enlargement in February 1990,” Diplomatic History 34 (2010), pp. 119-140.
- documents
Week 13: 2000s
(one class only due to college schedule)
asynchronous: Bush & 9/11
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 11-19. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 11-23
Week 14: 2010s
Obama and Trump
lecture snippets posted to YouTube as of evening of 11-26. Quiz with question/comment back to me by 11-30
synchronous: reading discussion
- TBA.
- documents
Week 15: group presentations
Mock-NSC presentations
TBA: Final Exam
Learning objectives for this course include: (1) ability to read and interpret key historical sources; (2) ability to determine how important themes in U.S. foreign relations change over time; (3) ability to present key historical arguments orally. Item (1) will occur throughout the course; item (2) will occur in the final examination; item (3) will occur in the oral presentation.
This course follows all applicable college policies; see more in: